Terrific throw-back garage fuzz psych
Though they’ve been kicking around in one lineup or another for eight years, this Bonn-based quintet has only now recorded and released their debut LP. That’s given them plenty of time to hone their fuzz guitar, whining organ and solid garage rock beats. The band cites vintage touchstones in the Music Machine, Brogues and We the People, as well as the sounds of 80s revivalists like the Fuzztones and Gravedigger V. The strong organ presence also brings to mind Country Joe & The Fish, the Doors, Lyres, Rain Parade and Chesterfield Kings. The band’s eleven originals mix easily with two finely crafted covers (the Daybreakers’ “Psychedelic Siren” and Sonny Flaherty and Mark V’s manic “Hey Conductor“), as the band plays Eastern-tinged psychedelia, buzzing garage punk and organ and drum-driven rave-ups. The vocals are swaggering, snotty and with the Mellotron effect of “City of Light,” trippy. The album is well stocked with catchy melodies, sharp hooks, fuzz-powered riffs and inventive production touches that will really please garage and psych aficionados. [©2014 Hyperbolium] 